Morrison & Foerster
News Corp-backed real estate portal PropTiger said on Tuesday that Mumbai-based Housing.com will merge with it in an all stock deal, and that it will receive $50 million in fresh funds from News Corp.’s REA Group Ltd and $5 million from SoftBank Group.
Delhi University 2004 graduate Amit Kataria has been elected to Morrison & Foerster’s partnership in Hong Kong, as part of a round of promotions to new partners.
Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM) advised Singapore based hyperlocal delivery startup Grofers Group in the $120m (Rs 800 crore) investment in it by SoftBank Group, Tiger Global, Apoletto Asia and Sequoia Capital in a series D round of investment. The investors were advised by Morrison & Foerster, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM), Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian and Themis Associates.
SAM Delhi partner Puja Sondhi, senior associate Sumeet Singh and senior associate designate Vasundhara Garg acted for Grofers.
CAM Mumbai partners Ashwath Rau and Shishir Vayttaden and consultant Nirmal Vathani, and Morrison & Foerster of counsel Amit Kataria acted for Softbank.
Themis senior associate Dheeraj Khanna acted as the legal advisor to Sequoia Capital.
Gunderson Dettmer senior partner Steven L Baglio and New York lawyers Salil Gandhi and Suneela Jain acted for Tiger Global.
DST Global’s in house legal team advised Apoletto Asia.
Grofers is now valued at about $400 m (Rs 2,664 crore) reported Economic Times. It was valued to be $33m in February this year. The money will be used to expand the company’s business and to build its supply chain, its CEO Albinder Dhindsa was quoted as saying.
Davis Polk & Wardwell registered foreign lawyer Amit Kataria has joined Morrison Foerster (MoFo) as an of counsel in Hong Kong.
He specialises in cross border M&As and disputes and enforcement in India, according to MoFo’s press release, which added that he will help the firm grow its India practice.
The Delhi University 2004 LLB alumnus who obtained his LLM from Columbia Law School in the US in 2007, began his career as an associate in 2007 with Debevoise & Plimpton from where he joined Davis Polk in 2011.
MoFo managing partner Eric Piesner said in the release: “MoFo has seen an increase in demand for assistance from Asian and international clients seeking to invest in India as changes in government and various macroeconomic factors make India a more attractive investment target.”
The firm has an active corporate presence in South Asia with many clients including long time client SoftBank, added the release.
IndusLaw advised India’s largest taxi aggregator Ola Cabs, backed by Japan’s Softbank Corp, in raising $314m (Rs 1,952 crore) from Russian Yuri Milner’s DST Global which was advised by AZB & Partners and Goodwin Procter.
Indus Delhi partner Gaurav Dani, senior associate Divya Varghese and associate Nitin Gera acted for Ola. AZB Mumbai partner Darshika Kothari and Goodwin partner Yash Rana acted for DST
Gunderson Dettemer partner Steven L Baglio and lawyer Melissa B Marks acted for new investor Internet Fund. Morrison Foerster of counsel James T McCormick and associate Noah Carr acted for SoftBank Internet and Media (SIMI).
In November 2014, Olacabs had raised $210m from SIMI and its existing investors including Tiger Global, Matrix Partners India and Steadview Capital.
Induslaw advised online and app-based taxi booking service Olacabs in raising Rs 1281 crore ($210m) from SoftBank, which was advised by AZB & Partners and Morrison Foerster.
IndusLaw advised Snapdeal again on its largest round of investment to date with 12 other law firm teams.
Khaitan & Co, AZB & Partners and international firm Morrison Foerster have advised on India’s largest heat-withstanding materials manufacturer Tata Refractories’ sale of a 51 per cent stake to Japanese conglomerate Krosaki Harima for $128m.